While there are obvious demographic and political variations between a city population and a rural one, we city dwellers have no less of a claim to "ordinariness" than our rural or small-town brethren.

By keeping this intriguing narrative on a basic descriptive level, an anecdotal history of current events, Amelia Thomas reveals not only the pathos of the situation, but also the indominatable will to survive  for both the human and animal menagerie  and the humour and everyday 'ordinariness' of those involved.

The public always viewed Blair & Brown as a double act and there was a sense that any shortcomings in one were balanced in the other what Tony lacked in intellectual weight, Gordon made up - what Gordon lacked in 'ordinariness', Tony made up etc.

She had been so infatuated with Will, one of three sons whose father owned a Fortune 500 packaging plant, so delighted by his strong family ties and his "ordinariness," despite his supposed millions, that she chose to turn a blind eye to the simple truth that the fortune Will believed to be his was, in fact, his father's.

Come Monday night, the day of work is doneTuesday morning lose the grey of ordinarinessStart by putting off your choresAnd all the crushing boresSay your morning prayersSing a rousing songThen sing it on the long walk home.